1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cassette for receiving a number of flexible packs, the formation of said packs into a group and delivery of said group into an outer pack, wherein different parts of said cassette can be moved relative to one another from a pick-up position when receiving said flexible packs to a formation position for the formation of said group of packs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a cassette is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,801. This publication describes the formation of a group of packs by placing one or more rows of packs next to one another in an upright position in a cassette. A side wall of the cassette is made so that it can rotate and after filling of the cassette the packs lying in a slightly slanting position are placed in a straight position. The bottom of the cassette is then swung to one side and the flexible packs move into an outer pack such as a box.
During the packing of flexible packs such as packs for potato crisps, snacks and other products the problem is that the outer pack cannot always be filled in the optimum manner because of the changing shape of the flexible pack. On the other, hand, in the case of many products it is not possible to remove bulges in flexible packs by applying pressure because the product in the flexible packs could be damaged as a result of this.
In shops products are increasingly being sold from the box. That is to say, a group of products is placed directly on the shelf from the box, or a large part of the box is opened, so that the consumer can remove the products. In such a case it is important for the consumer to see immediately that part of the pack that most arouses the desire to purchase. For that reason, bearing this objective in mind, it is necessary when packing different rows of packs in a group to take into account the orientation when introducing the flexible packs into the same box. It may be necessary in this case for certain flexible packs to be oriented in a different way from the rest of the flexible packs.